We are developing an online professional development course for 8th grade science teachers. The fifteen teachers that participate in a pilot the course in the fall of 2015 will learn about stereotype threat and practice strategies to reduce the negative effects in an inquiry science context. The course will address strategies and tools to improve instruction, feedback and student collaboration and will be infused with real student data from our experimental studies that found a negative classroom wide effect of stereotype threat on student collaboration. In this video we will discuss a brief overview of the project and the phenomenon of stereotype threat, our experimental study design and results, and our current plan for developing the online course to help teachers create a successful classroom environment.

We are developing an online professional development course for 8th grade science teachers. The fifteen teachers that participate in a pilot the course in the fall of 2015 will learn about stereotype threat and practice strategies to reduce the negative effects in an inquiry science context. The course will address strategies and tools to improve instruction, feedback and student collaboration and will be infused with real student data from our experimental studies that found a negative classroom wide effect of stereotype threat on student collaboration. In this video we will discuss a brief overview of the project and the phenomenon of stereotype threat, our experimental study design and results, and our current plan for developing the online course to help teachers create a successful classroom environment.

Hi Brian,
Thanks for the question. We have three types of measures from various perspectives. At the end of each lesson, students and teachers (who were blind to condition) answered brief surveys rating the levels of collaboration/interaction during that class period. Items are along the lines of “I believe others saw me as an important part of the group today.” In addition, observers (blind to condition) used the RTOP protocol. From that, we focused on the “classroom culture” items. These don’t give indication of stereotype threat directly, but the finding that all three were dampened on days when threat was primed suggest it is at play. Hope that helps!

Hi Avron,
In this exploratory work, we will not be collecting data with students or in the teachers’ classrooms. Instead, our measures will focus on teachers’ perceived value of the PD experience and content, their level of engagement in the community of practice (via observations and analysis of event logs), and interviews. We’re drawing quite a bit from the community of practice literature (ie, Wenger). Ideally, we’ll follow up from this first run of piloting with a classroom-based study targeting the most promising strategies.

Lisa Hogan

Facilitator

May 12, 2015 | 08:35 p.m.

Based on the data from your experimental studies finding a negative classroom wide effect of stereotype threat on student collaboration, do you have any thoughts about challenges teachers might encounter as they implement strategies to reduce the negative effects in an inquiry science context and how you will help teachers with these challenges?

Hi Lisa,
Thanks for the question! We have been working closely with teacher co-designers in developing the PD experience. As they try out different strategies and activities, we’re finding that some are relatively straightforward to integrate into daily instruction – e.g., attending to ways of providing feedback that encourage all learners — while others are more of a stretch. Some strategies particularly seem to be perceived as more in the realm of a guidance counselor’s role. This has been very helpful input as we work together to make strategies usable and feasible.

Elizabeth Hassrick

Facilitator

May 13, 2015 | 09:24 a.m.

Such critical work, to uncover how social and racial dynamics shape peer interactions in classrooms. Very difficult dynamics to measure. Could you share any observational findings related to how already established social networks among peers were protective or undermining, with regard to stereotype threat?

Hi Elizabeth,
Thanks for the thoughtful question! While I’m not sure we can address this directly, we did observe interesting differences between teachers’ approaches to grouping students – particularly when students were able to form their own collaborative groups vs being assigned by the teacher. In one set of classes, students could also opt out of group work and choose to work independently. We’re just getting into analysis of how these different approaches relate to experiences of the class.